Beyond the gut: Systemic levels of short-chain fatty acids are altered in patients with heart failure.

Background & Aim: The gut microbiome produces short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), which serve as a substantial energy source and provide a link between the microbiome and (cardiac) metabolism. It has been demonstrated that the composition of the microbiome is altered in patients with heart failure (HF), but whether circulating levels of SCFAs are altered in HF is unknown.

Methods & Results: Serum concentrations of the SCFAs acetate, propionate, and butyrate were measured in 205 patients with HF and in 54 healthy controls, using isotope dilution liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.

Switching gears: Age-related differences in goal-directed and habitual behavior.

Objective: The present study intended to improve understanding of cognitive factors contributing to age-related differences in cognitive ability to shift between goal-directed (i.e., purposeful) and habitual (i.

Nuclear retention of unspliced HIV-1 RNA as a reversible post-transcriptional block in latency.

HIV-1 latency is mainly characterized at transcriptional level, and little is known about post-transcriptional mechanisms and their contribution to reactivation. The viral protein Rev controls the nucleocytoplasmic export of unspliced and singly-spliced RNA that is central to proviral replication-competence and is therefore a prerequisite for efficient viral reactivation during the "shock-and-kill" cure therapy. Here we show that during infection and reactivation, unspliced HIV-1 RNA is a subject to complex and dynamic regulation by the Rev cofactor MATR3 and the MTR4 cofactor of the nuclear exosome.

Co-infections of and various avian pathogens resulted in varying rates of SPF broilers with an infection.

Typical lesions can be reproduced in SPF broilers after intravenous, aerosol and oral inoculations.The respiratory route is potentially an infection route for pathogenic bacteria.Co-infections tested in this study or dexamethasone do not exacerbate the proportion of lesions.

A cross-sectional network analysis of successful aging in a resilience-based framework.

Aging inevitably gives rise to many challenges and transitions that can greatly impact our (mental) well-being and quality of life if these are not controlled adequately. Hence, the key to successful aging may not be the absence of these stressors, but the ability to demonstrate resilience against them. The current study set out to explore how resilience and successful aging may intersect by investigating how various resilience capacity-promoting (protective) and resilience capacity-reducing (risk) factors relate to mental well-being and quality of life.